TN apprehend Aussie bound Lankans

The Tamil Nadu police Q Branch have apprehended 14 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees at Velankanni in Nagapattinam who were awaiting a boat to sail illegally to Australia from Thoothukudi in South India. The Q Branch police had previously received information about Lankan refugees’ Plans.

Acting on that information the police proceeded to set up a post at the Nagapattinam area and conduct extensive search and surveillance operations. It was during these search operations that the police had come across 20 Tamil refugees.

When police officers had attempted to question and search the suspicious individuals six of them had fled the area, resulting in the arrest of only 14 suspects. When the arrested persons were interrogated by the police, they had revealed that some 40 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from several Tamil Nadu camps were scheduled to group at Thoothukudi yesterday to be transported by boat to Australia.

They had also revealed that the person conducting the smuggling operation had charged each 100,000 Indian rupees to travel to Australia safely.